Water supplies are at capacity, so why is Jersey Shore being asked to conserve water?

Water supplies are at capacity now, but conservation would help once warm weather hits

4:44 PM,
Mar. 14, 2014

Patricia Ramsden, operations manager of New Jersey American Water Co.s' Swimming River Treatment Plant in Tinton Falls, takes water samples from one of the clarifiers, which are used to clarfiy and filter the water pumped in from the Swimming River Reservoir.

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It has been a miserable winter, with more than a dozen storms hitting New Jersey, dumping copious amounts of snow. And ice. And rain. And snow.

Yet New Jersey American Water Co. executives are asking customers to take steps to conserve water this summer to avoid what would be a multimillion dollar expansion that ultimately would be paid by consumers.

There's no more room in the reservoirs. The wintertime demand is low. And when the prime time for water use arrives this summer, the stormy winter months will be long-forgotten. ...